Sunday, 2 April 2017

Yesterday we installed HUE's 4th exhibition at the Rhodes Gallery in Bishop's Stortford. There are 40 textile pieces exhibited, 5 of which are mine.

Three of these pieces are the first of my Atacama series to be exhibited, with the one on the right only being completed late on Friday evening. Tight? Definitely! It took longer to install the exhibition than I anticipated, perhaps they always do, and had planned to take a couple of close-ups when my pieces were hung but at the end of a busy day, I completely forgot.

I have previously posted about the 'Hidden Pathways' piece is here and I will post about the other two pieces just as soon as I have some more detailed photos to show you. If you are able to why not visit the exhibition? It's free to enter and there is a lovely variety of work on display.

Thursday, 2 March 2017

For all the reasons mentioned in my previous post, it's been ages since I finished a piece of work but finally I have and hopefully there'll be a couple of others finished soon. As you can see I'm still being inspired by the Atacama Desert and think I will be for sometime to come. I loved it! I don't usually like to cut things up (cowardly me?) but found it easy to cut this one, probably because I didn't have a fixed image of the end piece in mind and therefore wasn't worrying I would ruin the thing I was trying to create. The blues in the piece represent the big blue desert sky and the underground water supply whilst the other colours represent those created by the minerals in hard salty landscape.

The piece is made up of layers, the top layer is paper laminatation that I created from one of my designs....

...which I bonded onto a simply printed piece of fabric which just happened to have running stitch going around the edge like a frame. The under stitching is very difficult to see in the final piece but I liked the effect this created and would like to experiment more with this technique although I'm not sure how motivated I'll be to stitch knowing that it will be covered up by another layer.

The layered fabric was then cut into squares and rectangles and moved around until I achieved a composition that I was happy with. Each cut piece was then layered on black fabric with black thread couched along the edge to neaten it.

Not all the pieces were stitched but I rubbed white screen ink on those that were to emphasis the stitching and to represent the crusty salty surface of the desert. These were then applied to a mono printed background and additional stitching added to represent the pathways linking the elements of the desert together. Stitching the pieces to the background should have been the easiest task, but it took ages with lots of unpicking and re-positioning until I was happy....funny how the tasks you think will be quick and easy often take much longer than you think..

Tuesday, 28 February 2017

Having a studio to work in has been a dream of mine for a long time and now I have it. The benefit of having thought about it for so long is that I've had plenty of time to hone my requirements and so I am excited to say that my finished studio meets all those requirements and ticks all my boxes! I am very, very lucky. So what did I want from my studio? I wanted somewhere with a print table large enough to cater for my large pieces of cloth and and area I could print and dye without worrying about the long term effects of spillage on furniture and flooring. .

A sink and a washing machine that never needed to be used for household washing. Those small particles of dye get everywhere and are difficult to see and can easily ruin clothes and sheets in my case. Although I've had some accidents, I'm really surprised and grateful that I haven't had more dyeing incidents than I have.

Somewhere I can leave my sewing machine set up, ready to go and a large pin board which I absolutely love having. Not sure how I did without one of those before,

Storage space, now which textile artist doesn't need more of that? So this is the mezzanine level, which still needs a banister and a loft ladder to get to it and then I can start using it.

Good light available even when it's dark outside and the light in the studio is brilliant (no pun intended). I have 3 large velux windows and lots (and I mean lots) of LED daylight bulbs. All the research into light temperatures, light output etc were worth every hour we spent on it.

And these are supplemented by the bespoke window which I am rather keen on but for obvious reasons the builders less so.

The whole thing took a lot longer to complete than we thought but it has been so worth it. It wasn't until 11th January that the studio was fully fitted out and had that all-so-important heating working. It has been difficult to do much textile work in the last 6 months with the chaos created by the building work, the lack of space, the research and ordering to be done, so I have lots of pent up creativity to get down on cloth but I've started. I've been experimenting with creating texture and layering colours but lots more work to do. I have just finished one piece though,which I'll show you next time, which I hope will be soon.

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About Me

I enjoy creating unique textiles. In particular, I enjoy printing and hand embroidering cloth.
In 2011, I completed my City & Guilds Diploma in Embroidery and I feel that I am now starting to find and explore my own preferred way of working.
I love increasing my knowledge and skills and I will often be found attending a textile related course on a Saturday.
During the week I am a Project Manager in the Financial Services Industry.